← Pentagon Plan for Greater Israel's List of Wars

The Countries, One by One: What Happened to Each Name on the List

"This is a memo that describes how we're going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran." That is how General Wesley Clark, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, described what a Joint Staff general told him a few weeks after 9/11, holding a paper "down from upstairs," from the Secretary of Defense's office (Democracy Now, March 2, 2007).

Five years was too short. Twenty-five was enough. Iraq was invaded in 2003. Libya's government was destroyed from the air in 2011. Sudan was split in two the same year. Somalia has been bombed since 2007. Lebanon has been hit by Israel again and again and is now partly occupied. Syria's government fell in December 2024. And Iran, the last name, was bombed in June 2025 and has been at war with the United States and Israel since February 28, 2026. Zeteo, publishing Clark's 2026 interview, put the count this way: "Since 9/11, the U.S. has attacked five of those seven countries" and is "currently attacking the final name on that list" (Zeteo, September 10, 2026).

This page walks the list in order. Each country has its own page with dates, officials' words, and sources.

At a glance

#	Country	What happened	Who acted	Page
1	Iraq	U.S. invasion, March 2003, on false WMD and al-Qaeda claims	United States	Iraq
2	Syria	U.S.-backed war from 2011; U.S. strikes 2017–2018; Assad fell December 8, 2024; Israel holds Syrian ground	U.S., Israel, proxies	Syria
3	Lebanon	Israeli wars 2006 and 2024; Nasrallah killed; Israeli occupation of the south from March 2026	Israel, with U.S. arms and cover	Lebanon
4	Libya	U.S. and NATO air war, 2011; Qaddafi killed; state collapsed	U.S., NATO	Libya
5	Somalia	U.S.-backed Ethiopian invasion, December 2006; U.S. strikes since January 2007	Ethiopia, U.S.	Somalia
6	Sudan	Split in two, 2011; normalization with Israel, 2020; civil war since 2023; U.S. declares no legitimate government, 2026	U.S.-backed separation; proxies	Sudan
7	Iran	Israeli and U.S. strikes, June 2025; U.S.–Israeli war from February 28, 2026	U.S., Israel	Iran

1. Iraq: first on the list

Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Its breakup had been an Israeli strategic goal since the 1982 Yinon essay, and its removal "an important Israeli strategic objective" in the 1996 Clean Break paper. On or about September 20, 2001, a general told Clark: "We've made the decision we're going to war with Iraq," with no new evidence tying Saddam to al-Qaeda. The case was built by a Pentagon office run by Clean Break's authors and found "inappropriate" by the Pentagon's own Inspector General. The war cost "4,431 Americans dead. $2.1 trillion spent." In 2026, Iraq is named as the staging ground for a ground war on Iran.

2. Syria: second on the list

"Israel's primary target on the Eastern front," Yinon wrote in 1982. "Weakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria," said the 1996 paper. After the Iraq invasion a U.S. official said "Syria will be next." A war fed by American money and weapons began in 2011; an Israeli former consul general said of it, "Let them both bleed." The Pentagon later admitted it had "approximately 2,000" troops in Syria, not 900. The government fell on December 8, 2024, and Israel took and has refused to leave Syrian ground on Mount Hermon.

3. Lebanon: third on the list

Yinon held up "Lebanon's total dissolution into five provinces" as "a precendent for the entire Arab world." The 1996 paper named Hizballah as a principal target. In 2006 Israel went to war in Lebanon while the U.S. Secretary of State called it "the birth pangs of a new Middle East." In 2024 Israel killed Hezbollah's leader and invaded again. In March 2026, as the war on Iran began, Israel began occupying southern Lebanon, and U.S. teams described as "logistical, not combat" followed.

4. Libya: fourth on the list

Libya was untouched for ten years. Then in 2011 U.S. and British submarines fired "over 110 Tomahawk cruise missiles" under a U.N. resolution to "protect civilians." The President said regime change "would be a mistake"; a month later he wrote that "it is impossible to imagine a future for Libya with Gaddafi in power." Harvard's Belfer Center found the intervention aimed "to overthrow Qaddafi's regime." Clark himself had warned against it as "regime change in a Muslim land." The list did not need its original authors in office.

5. Somalia: fifth on the list

In December 2006 Ethiopia invaded Somalia with U.S. backing; U.S. strikes began within weeks and have continued for nearly twenty years, more than 100 in 2025 alone, with no vote in Congress. The Pentagon says: "We're not seeking regime change." The bombing does not end.

6. Sudan: sixth on the list

Sudan was taken apart without an invasion: split in two in 2011 with American support for the southern rebels, then taken off the U.S. terrorism list in 2020 in exchange for normalization with Israel, then broken by a civil war in which weapons reached one side through a network tied to a former U.S. military contractor. In September 2026 the State Department said neither side represents "a legitimate and constitutional government," which a former U.S. official read as "a policy of regime change in Sudan."

7. Iran: last on the list

"Finishing off, Iran." Israel's leaders told Washington in 2002 that Iran, not Iraq, was the real enemy. The U.S. intelligence community said in March 2025 that "Iran is not building a nuclear weapon." Israel struck on June 13, 2025; U.S. bombers followed on June 22, after "15+ years of meticulous planning." On February 28, 2026, the United States and Israel went to war with Iran, and the day after, Pentagon briefers told Congress there was no intelligence Iran was about to strike America first. Officials say the U.S. is "not currently postured for ground forces." An Israeli newspaper has printed a plan to recruit up to 1.5 million soldiers for a ground invasion.

A witness from Central Command

Clark is not the only officer to describe the list. An officer stationed at U.S. Central Command on 9/11 wrote in 2025: "I was at US Central Command and I can tell you 100% this is true. The J2 was given a list of 5 countries as candidates on where to go after AFG almost immediately. Those same 5 countries were on Gen Wesley Clark's famous 7 countries in 5 yrs comment" (@ColonelTowner on X, September 25, 2025). He added: "Two of the 7 were in EUCOM at the time," meaning they fell under U.S. European Command rather than Central Command (@ColonelTowner on X, October 12, 2025).

The pattern

Look at the list as a whole and one pattern repeats. First, the public is given a reason: weapons of mass destruction, protecting civilians, fighting terrorists, stopping a bomb. Later, the reason turns out to be false or beside the point. Along the way, officials say American involvement is small: "no boots on the ground," "not combat," "logistical," "not seeking regime change," "I wouldn't call it a war." And the troop numbers turn out to be larger than stated, as in Syria, where the Pentagon said 900 and then 2,000. The pattern is laid out in What officials said versus what was true.

The other pattern is who benefits. The governments on the list were, almost all, hostile to Israel, and, in the words of one 2025 essay, "Every toppled regime, every shattered state, removed a potential threat to Israel's dominance in the region" (Prime News Digest on X, May 13, 2025). Economist Jeffrey Sachs: "American interference, at the behest of Netanyahu's far-right Israel, has left the Middle East in ruins, with over a million dead and open wars raging in Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine" (as quoted by @amborin on X, November 10, 2025). Only Iran is left.

How strong is the evidence?

Claim	Rating	Page
Iraq was invaded in 2003 on claims the record later proved false	CONFIRMED	Iraq
The U.S. struck Syria's government, kept troops there, and understated their number	CONFIRMED	Syria
Israel fought wars in Lebanon in 2006 and 2024 and began occupying the south in 2026	CONFIRMED	Lebanon
The 2011 Libya war aimed at regime change while the public was told it was about civilians	STRONG	Libya
The U.S. has bombed Somalia since 2007 without a congressional vote	CONFIRMED	Somalia
Sudan was split in 2011 and brought into normalization with Israel in 2020	CONFIRMED	Sudan
Iran, last on the list, was bombed in 2025 and has been at war with the U.S. and Israel since 2026	CONFIRMED	Iran
Six of the seven have been attacked or broken by the U.S., Israel, or their proxies, and the seventh is at war	STRONG	this page

Status: Wesley Clark is alive. Jeffrey Sachs is alive. Nothing on this page states that any living person committed a crime.

Research captures: twitter/t34__v397.md through t40__v480.md

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

At a glance​

1. Iraq: first on the list​

2. Syria: second on the list​

3. Lebanon: third on the list​

4. Libya: fourth on the list​

5. Somalia: fifth on the list​

6. Sudan: sixth on the list​

7. Iran: last on the list​

A witness from Central Command​

The pattern​

How strong is the evidence?​

Related Areas​